SHE’S got the gams and the guns: In short, the latest Bond Girl is more than just a very pretty face.As the dazzling but deadly U.S. secret agent Jinx in “Die Another Day,” opening Nov. 22, Halle Berry represents a quantum leap forward in the evolution of the British superspy’s sexy sidekicks.
Equally at home kicking butt in a fuchsia bikini or camouflage fatigues, Jinx deftly wields weapons, battles baddies and matches Bond quip for quip.
“She is Bond’s equal,” Berry says. “She saves him a few times, and they have a great partnership.”
Bond producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli were so impressed with the Oscar-winning actress that they have given the go-ahead for a spin-off movie based on the character of Jinx – the first for the 40-year-old franchise.
Berry, who’ll appear next in the sequel to “X-Men,” has said she’d “do it in a heartbeat.”
The early Bond girls were not required to do much more than swan around in seductive gowns; they were memorable chiefly for their sexually suggestive names – Pussy Galore, Holly Goodhead, Honey Ryder.
But gradually the franchise has been dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century – no longer just victims or villains, 007’s women are now smarter, stronger and sassier.
In 1995’s “GoldenEye,” Dame Judi Dench took over the role of Bond’s boss, M, and 1997’s “Tomorrow Never Dies” introduced an assertive Bond companion in Michelle Yeoh’s martial arts expert Wai Lin.
But Berry’s Jinx, so named because she was born on Friday the 13th, trumps all those who have come before.
An American spy who joins forces with Pierce Brosnan’s 007 against the villainous megalomaniac Gustav Graves (Toby Stephens), she is Bond’s intellectual and physical match.
While the role hardly calls for Berry to flex the acting muscle that won her an Oscar for “Monster’s Ball,” she tosses off risqué wisecracks with aplomb.
(Wait ’til you hear Jinx’s retort to a thug who’s torturing her.)
“Jinx is sexy. She is sure of her sexuality and how to use it, almost as a weapon,” Berry says.
The 34-year-old Ohio native has more than an Oscar to help her stand out from 20 films’ worth of Bond girls.
One of the very few actresses to come to the series already a star, she’s unlikely to fade into obscurity post-Bond.
Does anyone remember “GoldenEye’s” Izabella Scorupco? Seen much lately of Tanya Roberts, of “A View to a Kill” fame?
Guaranteed, movie fans won’t soon forget Berry emerging from the surf wearing a tangerine bikini with a knife in the belt – a 40th-anniversary homage to Ursula Andress in “Dr. No.”